25 Kg sack of Marris Otter stacked on other base grains

After much ado, the bulk grain order arrived.  It was about a month passed when it was scheduled.  I shouldn’t complain too much since it saves a tremendous amount of money.  All told, the average price per pound of this order was about $0.75.  Contrast that with $1.50 to $2.00 / lb when buying it at the LHBS.

Now we can move forward on the latest barrel addition, an 11 Gallon Rum barrel from Farmhouse Brewing Supply.  I’ve had nothing but great beers come out of the sorghum Whiskey Barrel I purchased a year ago.  The barrel arrived in February and I’m eager to get something in there as soon as possible.  This batch will end up in the barrel in early May as it’ll need to sit about 4 weeks to completely ferment out.

My previous batch, a 5 gallon batch is still in the Balcones Blue Corn Whiskey barrel.  The gravity on the batch was a touch high going into the barrel, about 1.029.  Transferring into the barrel helped get things going again and now the beer finished at 1.023 which is a touch sweet, but behind all of the roast and whiskey, it still tastes amazing.

This will be the first beer I’ve added to a rum barrel, so to get into the spirit, I’ve swapped in brown sugar as part of the recipe for more rummy flavors.  We won’t see this beer in a bottle or keg until sometime this fall, but that will give it plenty of time to really pick up all that a new (to me) barrel can offer.

Now besides the brewing, the only thing left is to find a space for this barrel in the aging room…

Woxford Barrel Aging Room